ECUADOR: Dream's End?

The rumor was that "Shell's pulling out." It
hit Ecuador last week with all the panicky force of a colliery's
closing on a Pennsylvania hard-coal town. It remained rumor while
officials of .the Shell Co. of Ecuador, Ltd. talked about
reorganization rather than withdrawal. But in Quito Shell's lawyer,
Henry Farquharson, after insisting that plans called for firing of less
than 20% of 4,500 employees, added ominously: "You can't go on
indefinitely." What he meant was that Shell could not go on pouring
money into a plan which has not yet produced...